W. T. Garratt Brass & Bell Foundry
The History
William Thompson Garratt came from a brass & bell foundry family. He was born in Waterbury, CT. to Joseph Garrett whose brother William had previously set up the first brass and bell foundry in the city of Philadelphia. This is where Joseph learned the art of foundry work in the 1820’s. In 1829 Joseph and his wife Catharine moved to Waterbury, CT, where he established a brass & bell foundry about the same time that W. T. Garratt was born.
Joseph only stayed in Waterbury for about 5 years when he moved further west, this time settling in Cincinnati in 1834. There he set up another brass & bell foundry which is where William would apprentice and learn foundry work.
At the age of 20, about 1849 William left Cincinnati and traveled via the Ohio and then Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, bored a ship and eventually ended up in San Fransico. There he met Judge J.W. Schultz who he went into the foundry business with under the name Schultz & Company.
In 1851 the foundry was destroyed in a fire and then again in 1866. In 1885 the business was incorporated and the new name was W.T. Garratt & Company.
Most of the bells that are known today by this foundry were cast in the 1880’s and 1890’s. Most of the bells are located on or new the west coast but there are some that are located in the Midwest like Nebraska and Kansas.
The Big House fire station has a fire bell that was cast by Garratt in 1885 that is on display that includes the original yoke. The bell on Alcatraz Island, in the lighthouse is a large Garratt bell weighing about 3,300 Lbs.
In 1899 the firm cast a large 2,500 Lb. fire bell for the Los Gatos fire department in California. That bell is still on display.
William Garratt died in 1890 but his company lived on. His foundry was probably the largest bell foundry west of St. Louis. There are still quite a few of his bells that remain and continue to ring well over 125 years after his death.
